1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to detection and identification of the source of moisture in a building, house or other structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
The presence of moisture in a structure caused by a leak, for example, is often difficult to detect until the moisture has caused sufficient damage to be apparent to the naked eye. In most cases, moisture from rain or ground can seep inside the walls, ceiling, floor, roof or foundation of a structure and cause widespread damage before being outwardly apparent. By the time the damage is noticeable, however, the structure is often extensively damaged, and requires significant and costly repair work, if the structure can be saved at all. It would therefore be advantageous to detect moisture before the structure is extensively damaged and at a time at which the cause of the moisture source can be stopped without extensive and costly repair. In addition, because repair may necessitate destruction of a portion of the structure to access the water-damaged areas, it is desirable to locate exactly where moisture is and is not present in the structure so that undamaged portions of the structure can be left intact while repairing the damaged portions of the structure and stopping the source of the water problem.
A technology that is somewhat related to this invention is used to detect drafts in a house or building for energy consumption analysis. In this technology, a door is removed from the structure and a vacuum duct is attached about the doorway. The vacuum draws air into the structure through cracks or other openings in the structure, and the structure is examined with an infrared scanner. The infrared scanner reveals relatively cool areas of the structure in which air is drawn into the structure with the vacuum system. Although this technology is meritorious to an extent in detecting drafts, it is not intended, and is totally ineffective, for the detection of leaks or other moisture-producing sources that can cause major damage to a structure.